Carriage-step.



E. TERRY. CARRIAGE STEP. APPLICATION man ocT 2. 1915.

1,227,218. Patented May 22,1917.

EDWARD TERRY, 0F BRIX ON, ENGLAND. A

CARRIAGE-STEP.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented lvlay 22, 1917.

Application filed October 2, 1915. Serial No. 53,743.

1 b all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD TERRY, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Milton Hall, 117 Loughborough Park, Brixton, England, have invented a new and useful Improve'inent Relating to Carriage- Steps, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has reference to carriage steps more particularly the steps or foot boards of motor road vehicles.

In vehicles of this kind it is usual to provide a mat upon the footboard just below the door but such mat rapidly becomes soiled and in wet weather becomes saturated with water with the consequence that the boots of the person stepping on the mat when entering or leaving the vehicle are soiled or get wet and particularly is this the case with ladies who are usually more or less lightly shod.

Now the object of the present invention is to obviate the aforesaid inconveniences and to provide an improved device of the kind whereby the mat is normally shielded from the effects of the weather and comes into operative position only when the door of the vehicle is open. With this end in view the invention consists in the improved means whereby a footboard matof a road vehicle may be caused to be automatically brought into operative position when the door of the vehicle is opened and returned to the inoperative position when the door is closed.

In order that my invention may be readily understood and carried into efi'ect I will now proceed to describe the same fully for which purpose reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a portion of a motor road vehicle having my improved device applied thereto.

Figs. 2 and 3 are sections taken approximately along the line a a Fig. 1 but drawn to a larger scale showing the two positions of the device.

In that embodiment of the invention illustrated the mat 1 is held in a shallow boxlike casing 2 hinged at 2 to the footboard 3 of the vehicle. Positively secured to the casing 2 is a curved arm 4 passing through an aperture 5 in the footboard. Said rod is screw-threaded for a portion of its length and carries two winged nuts 6 and 7 the purpose of which will be presently explained.

The floor 8 of the car is provided with an aperture 9 in which is mounted a guide pulley 10 while to the'underside of said floor a guide pulley 11 which may be mounted to swivel is secured. A bracket 12 having a guide pulley 13 is also attached to the-underside of the floor while near the edge of the footboard 3 and on the underside theremounted. To the edge of door 15 of the vehicle one end of a wire cord 16 or the like is attached as at 17 said cord then passing over the guide pulley 10 through the floor of the vehicle over the swiveling guide pulley 11 and pulley 13 carried by the bracket 12 the free end of the cord being provided with an eye 18 which is engaged with a washer 19 on the arm 4 said washer being retained in place by the aforesaid nuts 6 and 7 Another wire cord 20 having an eye 21 is engaged with the arm 4 and is then carried around the pulley 14 and underneath the footboard of the vehicle where it is attached to a rubber or other spring 22 (Fig. 1).

Fig. 2 illustrates the device above described in its normal position and it will be seen that upon opening the door 15 of the vehicle the cords 16 and 20 will be moved against the resistance of the spring 22 thus turning the arm 4 from the position shown in Fi 2 to that shown in Fig. 3 and bringing the casing 2 holding the mat 1 down through an angle of 90 on to the footboard3 into operative position. As the door 15 is closed the spring 22 will operate to returnthe parts to the position illustrated in Fig. 2. By'providing the winged nuts 6 and 7 on the arm 4 the cords 16 and 20 may be readily adjusted to obtain the requisite effective throw of saidarm.

A device embodying my invention may be readily applied at a small cost to a road vehicle without making extensive structural alterations and forms a convenient and ef ficient means of obviating the inconveniences hereinbefore mentioned. I

What I claim is:

1. The combination with a vehicle, of a support, a casing hinged to said support, a mat mounted in said casing, an arm secured to said casing, a flexible member connecting said arm with the door of the vehicle, and a spring controlled flexible member secured to said arm and to said support.

2. The combination with a vehicle, of a V support, a casing hinged to said support, a a door, of a support, a casing hinged to said mat mounted in said casing, an arm secured to said casing, a flexible member connecting said arm with the door of the vehicle, a spring controlled flexible member secured to said arm and to said support, and means for guiding said flexible members.

3. The combination with'a vehicle, of a support, a casing hinged to said support, a mat mounted in said casing, an arm secured to said casing, a flexible member connecting said arm with the door of the vehicle, a spring controlled flexible member secured to said arm and to said support, and means for adjusting and guiding said flexible members. 7

4C. In combination with a vehicle'having support and adapted to hold a mat, a curved arm secured to sald casing, a flexlble connecvehicle, a swiveling guide pulley in the floor of the vehicle, a bracket mounted on the un- 20 tion between said arm and the door'of thederside of the Vehicle floor guide pulleys 7 carried by said bracket and the floor of the vehicle, a flexible connection between the aforesald curved arm and said support, a

guide pulley on said support for guiding said flexible connection and a spring con necting said flexible connection with said support and means carried by said curved" arm for aclpisting said flexible connections.

EDWARD TERRY;

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 1 

